View full sizeStaff photo by Britney LillyaPSEG Nuclear's three reactors at the utility's Artificial Island generating complex in Lower Alloways Creek have more than two decades before the first plant could close.

By Matthew Daly

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — After a legal challenge from the Christie administration, a federal appeals court on Friday threw out a rule that allows nuclear power plants to store radioactive waste at reactor sites for up to 60 years after a plant shuts down.

In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not fully evaluate the risks associated with long-term storage of nuclear waste.

The court said on-site storage has been “optimistically labeled” as temporary, but has stretched on for decades.

“This is an important victory for the people of New Jersey, on an issue that has significant public health and safety implications, and also the potential to negatively impact the state’s environment,’’ said Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin in a press release.

“The Christie Administration believes the federal government has an obligation to develop a permanent plan for nuclear waste storage," Martin said. "It cannot avoid a solution just by extending the time period in which radioactive waste can remain on sites in New Jersey and across the nation.’’

The decision puts the Obama administration in a bind, since the White House directed the Energy Department to rescind its application to build a final resting place for the nation’s nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain and cut off funding two years ago. An alternative site has not yet been identified.

The ruling also adds a new wrinkle to an ongoing dispute that has confounded federal officials for more than 30 years: What to do with the radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants?

Congress designated Yucca Mountain for a nuclear waste dump, but the plan has been opposed by Nevada elected officials, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

In the meantime, the waste — actually spent nuclear fuel — is stored on site at the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors in pools or in dry casks.

At the Artificial Island generating complex in Lower Alloways Creek Township, PSEG Nuclear is already running out of room in the indoor pools holding spent fuel rods from its three nuclear power plants. The company has already begun storing the waste outdoors using the dry cask method.

Just last year, the NRC granted approval for the Salem 1 Salem 2 and Hope Creek reactors to operate an additional 20 years after their current 40-year operating licenses expire.

With the license extensions, Salem 1 can operate through 2036, Salem through 2040 and Hope Creek through April 2046.

The appeals court said the NRC should complete a detailed environmental review of on-site storage or explain why one is not needed.

The search for a solution to the country’s nuclear waste problem took on a new urgency after the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear station in Japan. Three-quarters of the 72,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel scattered across 35 U.S. states is packed into spent fuel pools similar to the ones thought to have overheated and released radioactive material into the air and water around the stricken Japanese reactors.

A presidential commission recommended in January that the U.S. immediately start looking for an alternative to the failed Yucca Mountain site, which cost an estimated $15 billion but was never completed. The panel recommended a “consent-based” approach to siting future nuclear waste facilities, noting that attempts to force such facilities on unwilling states, tribes and communities have failed spectacularly.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called Friday’s ruling a landmark victory for New Yorkers and people across the country who live near nuclear power plants. New Jersey and three other Northeastern states — New York, Connecticut and Vermont — sued the NRC last year, claiming that the agency had not shown that on-site storage was safe.

"The NRC cannot turn its back on federal law and ignore its obligation to thoroughly review the environmental, public health and safety risks related to the creation of long-term nuclear waste storage sites within our communities,” Schneiderman said. “The security of our residents who live in the areas that surround these facilities is paramount.”

Schneiderman said the ruling means the NRC cannot license or re-license any nuclear plant, including the Indian Point nuclear plant near New York City, until it reviews the risks of on-site storage.

A spokesman for the NRC said the agency was reviewing the ruling and had no immediate comment.

Geoffrey Fettus, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that joined the state lawsuit, said the NRC would now be forced to do an environmental review of on-site storage that it has long resisted.

This is an important step in recognizing the long-term environmental impacts of nuclear waste,” Fettus said.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, called the ruling a disappointment. The industry has agreed with the NRC that on-site storage is safe.

In a statement, the group urged the NRC to complete the additional environmental analysis and reissue the rule as soon as possible.

The appeals court ruling was written by Chief Judge David Sentelle and supported by Judges Thomas Griffith and David Tatel. Sentelle and Griffith were appointed by Republican presidents, while Tatel is a Democratic appointee.